Young Londoners 'most at risk of anxiety and depression because they compare themselves with colleagues'

Professional health: Harley Street clinical psychologist Dr Becky Spelman
Becky Spelman
Fiona Simpson7 May 2017

A poor work-life balance and an increasing number of over achievers has sparked a huge rise in the number of young Londoners facing mental illness, experts have said.

Harley Street psychologist and cognitive behavioural expert Dr Becky Spelman told the Standard that anxiety, depression and relationship difficulties are the most common issues facing people across the city.

Workers in their late 20s and early 30s are the most likely to seek help despite many struggling after leaving university.

She said: “The reasons people seem to seek treatment later in life is both financial and due to maturity. People realise it gets in the way of their careers and no longer want to tolerate an issue that won’t go away on its own.”

Speaking ahead of Mental Health Awareness Week, Dr Spelman, who has worked in the capital for eight years, said many City workers compare themselves to high-flying colleagues and create unreasonable expectations for themselves.

She said: “I think the pressures of living in high cost cities contribute to an unhealthy work life balance that causes great amounts of stress for people.

“Also cities attract more high achievers which has a domino effect, there is a lot of compare and dispute going on and people having unreasonable expectations for themselves.”

In a bid to tackle mental illness, Dr Spelman urged people to speak to professionals, friends and colleagues about their emotions.

“Tackle it head on rather that suppressing it, don't ignore any emotions or sweep them under the carpet, practice problem solving and learn that you can find practical solutions to every problem,” she added.

Those suffering with anxiety have a habit of “worrying about hypothetical situations which haven’t become a real problem yet.”

Dr Spelman, who works as a clinical director at the Private Therapy Clinic, encouraged Londoners to learn to desensitise and “sit with difficult emotions” in a bid to stop avoiding anything that causes anxiety.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry have been campaigning for people across the country to speak out about mental illness.

Prince Harry was praised after opening up about the grief surrounding his mother’s death while Prince William interviewed Lady Gaga about her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder as part of the Heads Together campaign.

Mental Health Awareness week runs from May 8 to May 14.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT